WASHINGTON, _February 13, 1843_.
_To the House of Representatives_:
I herewith transmit to the House of Representatives a report made to me
on the 9th instant by the Secretary of the Treasury, on the subject of
the present and prospective condition of the finances.
You will perceive from it that even if the receipts from the various
sources of revenue for the current year shall prove not to have been
overrated and the expenditures be restrained within the estimates, the
Treasury will be exhausted before the close of the year, and that this
will be the case although authority should be given to the proper
Department to reissue Treasury notes. But the state of facts existing at
the present moment can not fail to awaken a doubt whether the amount of
the revenue for the respective quarters of the year will come up to the
estimates, nor is it entirely certain that the expenditures which will
be authorized by Congress may not exceed the aggregate sum which has
hitherto been assumed as the basis of the Treasury calculations.
Of all the duties of the Government, none is more sacred and imperative
than that of making adequate and ample provision for fulfilling with
punctuality its pecuniary engagements and maintaining the public credit
inviolate. Any failure in this respect not produced by unforeseen causes
could only be regarded by our common constituents as a serious neglect
of the public interests. I feel it, therefore, to be an indispensable
obligation, while so much of the session yet remains unexpired as to
enable Congress to give to the subject the consideration which its
great importance demands, most earnestly to call its attention to
the propriety of making further provision for the public service of
the year.
The proper objects of taxation are peculiarly within the discretion of
the Legislature, while it is the duty of the Executive to keep Congress
duly advised of the state of the Treasury and to admonish it of any
danger which there may be ground to apprehend of a failure in the means
of meeting the expenditures authorized by law.
I ought not, therefore, to dissemble my fears that there will be a
serious falling off in the estimated proceeds both of the customs and
the public lands. I regard the evil of disappointment in these respects
as altogether too great to be risked if by any possibility it may be
entirely obviated.
While I am far from objecting, under present circumstances, to the
recommendation of the Secretary that authority be granted him to reissue
Treasury notes as they shall be redeemed, and to other suggestions which
he has made on this subject, yet it appears to me to be worthy of grave
consideration whether more permanent and certain supplies ought not to
be provided. The issue of one note in redemption of another is not the
payment of a debt, which must be made in the end by some form of public
taxation.
I can not forbear to add that in a country so full of resources,
of such abundant means if they be but judiciously called out, the
revenues of the Government, its credit, and its ability to fulfill all
its obligations ought not to be made dependent on temporary expedients
or on calculations of an uncertain character. The public faith in this
or in all things else ought to be placed beyond question and beyond
contingency.
The necessity of further and full provision for supplying the wants of
the Treasury will be the more urgent if Congress at this present session
should adopt no plan for facilitating the financial operations of the
Government and improving the currency of the country. By the aid of a
wise and efficient measure of that kind not only would the internal
business and prosperity of the country be revived and invigorated, but
important additions to the amount of revenue arising from importations
might also be confidently expected. Not only does the present condition
of things in relation to the currency and commercial exchanges produce
severe and distressing embarrassments in the business and pursuits of
individuals, but its obvious tendency is to create also a necessity
for the imposition of new burdens of taxation in order to secure the
Government and the country against discredit from the failure of means
to fulfill the public engagements.